South Beach resident James Wilkins sent local fight fans home happy Tuesday night with a stirring victory over Jacob Colon to cap a Daily News Golden Gloves semifinal card at Petrides HS, Sunnyside.

It was a fitting ending as Wilkins, who advances to the Golden Gloves finals on April 18-19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, is a product of the Clifton-based Atlas Cops & Kids Boxing Club -- as the Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation was the beneficiary of the night's proceeds.

The 17-year-old New Dorp HS junior fought evenly through the first round of his 123-pound novice division bout against Colon, whose father was a two-time Golden Gloves champion and his uncle a three-time champ.

But at the start of the second round, Wilkins' devastating left hooks to the head began to control the fight. He prompted standing-eight counts against Colon late in the second round and midway through the third en route to the comfortable three-round decision.

"I was supposed to go to the body, but I didn't," said Wilkins. "Gary (Stark Sr., his trainer) wanted me to go to the body a lot, but I felt the hook was working for me."

Wilkins began his high school life at Tottenville, and played JV football for the Pirates as a freshman and sophomore. But "I was always a hot head," admitted Wilkins, whose cheering section Tuesday night included his parents and grandmother. "I was always getting in fights at school, even if you just looked at me the wrong way."

ATLAS BOXING CLUB

In stepped Atlas Cops & Kids Boxing Club director Pat Russo, a volunteer coach in the Tottenville football program whose son was a teammate of Wilkins. Russo took many of the JV players to the gym located inside the Park Hill Apartments as a way to keep in shape.

"But James fell in love with the sport," noted Russo. "He's the kid that boxing saves. He wanted to be a 'tough guy' in the street. The kid had a hard time holding his temper; boxing controls that. He gets his aggression out in the gym."

Wilkins' story is one of many reclamation projects brought about by the Atlas Cops & Kids Boxing Club -- which falls in line with the other types of projects the Atlas Foundation is known for. And recently, that includes everything from putting the roof on the house of a Hurricane Sandy victim, to helping cover the $15,000 price tag for a three-week chemotherapy program for a 10-year-old cancer patient.

"Thank you for giving us the ability to do what we've done the last 17 years," renowned boxing trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas told the crowd of 500, which featured some of the foundation's longtime supporters -- from former boxers Gerry Cooney and Iran Barkley; to ex-Jets running back Bruce Harper and MLB Network broadcaster Brian Kenny; to 2012 Olympian and current light heavyweight pro Marcus Browne, another Cops & Kids product. 